When Valthior arrived at the outer courtyard and saw Roger and the others again, they were in the middle of an experiment—testing Seastone shackles on some unlucky Wano prisoner.
"Huh? No effect at all. Looks like that Mythical Zoan is completely busted," Doringo muttered as he watched the prisoner, who showed no reaction despite wearing Seastone cuffs.
"Never seen anything like this before. Another unsolved mystery of Devil Fruits, I guess," Roger clicked his tongue.
As he spoke, he seemed to notice Valthior approaching. Turning around, he raised a hand.
"Valthior, you're done?"
"Yeah. How'd it go?" Valthior asked.
"Just like we thought—the Okuchi no Makami fruit has completely lost its power," Roger said, sounding uncertain. "Now we don't even know if it reincarnated somewhere… or if you absorbed it."
"If that's the case, no point overthinking it. We'll get answers eventually," Valthior replied with a raised brow.
"Fair enough." Roger nodded, then weighed the Seastone cuffs in his hand. "We just found out that Wano produces a lot of this stuff. It's seriously effective against Devil Fruit users. Since none of us are users, we never really thought about it before… but I remember chatting with Newgate—he mentioned that if ability users don't want to be completely crippled by Seastone, they need specific resistance training."
Roger's crew didn't have many Devil Fruit users, so this kind of thing rarely came up.
Even Valthior had nearly forgotten about it.
There was no doubt about Seastone's suppressive effect. Any untrained ability user would be reduced to a helpless weakling the moment it was used against them.
But many of the sea's top fighters were Devil Fruit users, and over time, they'd developed ways to deal with it. At some point, resistance training against Seastone had quietly spread among them.
It worked. While it still prevented ability use, it stopped users from becoming completely incapacitated, allowing them to retain some combat strength.
"In Udon, Wano's prison mines, criminals are forced into labor," Rayleigh added. "Since Wano has refined Seastone processing techniques, they sometimes shackle so-called 'sorcerers'—Devil Fruit users—with cuffs of varying purity. I've already had a full set prepared for you. From now on, this will be part of your training."
"No problem," Valthior agreed immediately.
Wano really was full of valuable stuff.
If his memory served, there should be other Devil Fruits—even Mythical Zoans—somewhere. Wasn't there something called an Onyudo? Though it felt rather lackluster.
Regardless, the Roger Pirates hadn't found those yet.
No matter. Once the Jaygarcia family's forces arrived and restored order, those resources would naturally fall under control.
"So, how'd things go with your family?" Gaban asked. "You didn't get stripped of your status, right?"
"Didn't I mention before? I plan to take over Wano," Valthior said first. "That's already arranged. My family will send people to take control soon."
Then he added, "As for my status, no issues for now. But there's something you all should know—we'll likely face strong enemies at our next destination, Whole Cake Island."
"Strong enemies?" Roger raised a brow. "The Marines? Is Garp coming?"
They all knew Valthior had reported their destination to Mariejois. Naturally, they expected some kind of response.
"Not the Marines," Valthior said with a grin. "The Holy Knights."
The moment he said that, Rayleigh and Gaban burst out laughing, clearly unimpressed.
"You mean those so-called immortal Celestial Dragons we ran into at God Valley?" Gaban said.
"Hard to kill, sure—but strength-wise? Nothing special," Rayleigh added casually.
Roger, however, thought for a moment. "Still… if things go sideways and that one shows up, it'll be trouble. So let's not get careless."
The Holy Knights weren't the real issue—Imu was.
They had all seen how Rocks died.
At Roger's words, everyone's expressions grew more serious.
Valthior, however, waved it off. "That's unlikely. But among our enemies, there's also the Giant King—Harald."
Given Saturn's stance, the Five Elders would only intervene if things went badly. Drawing Imu's attention wasn't in their interest either.
Most likely, they'd try to avoid that outcome altogether.
"Harald…" Roger's expression darkened, his eyes turning serious.
Rayleigh and Gaban reacted the same way. The previously relaxed atmosphere instantly grew heavy.
Bullet, on the other hand, looked confused. Clearly, he didn't recognize the name.
"You all seem pretty wary of this Giant King," he said. "Is he that strong? Stronger than Captain Roger?"
Before Roger could answer, Valthior asked, "Has any of you actually fought him?"
Rayleigh shook his head, answering Bullet first. "Harald is very strong—probably stronger than Roger. He might be in a league of his own. At our level, even a small improvement means a huge difference in strength. Back then, Rocks had already advanced several steps ahead. Roger fought him multiple times but couldn't defeat him… and Harald is said to be on the same level as Rocks."
Rayleigh was being polite—Roger hadn't just failed to win; he had lost.
"That guy had years on me!" Roger protested. "If we were the same age, I wouldn't lose to him, Rayleigh!"
That much was true. Rocks belonged to an earlier era. By the time Roger even set sail, Rocks was already rampaging through the seas, even clashing with Marine Admirals at Mary Geoise.
Comparing them directly was like expecting a rookie pirate to beat an Emperor—it just didn't make sense.
Valthior also believed that in a few more years, once Roger reached his peak, he would stand on equal footing with Rocks.
After all, Roger hadn't reached his prime yet. He was only forty-three.
By his own estimate, he'd hit his peak around forty-seven or forty-eight.
Though in the original timeline… that was when his terminal illness struck.
Now? Hard to say. Valthior's presence had already changed too much.
"We've never met Harald," Gaban said, his tone shifting with excitement. "But back on Hachinosu, Rocks, Shiki, and Newgate all spoke of him often. Even Rocks respected him. And prideful as Shiki and Newgate were, they did too… So yeah, he's definitely a formidable opponent."
Suddenly, the heaviness vanished.
Roger, Rayleigh, and Gaban all broke into grins—excited, eager.
"That changes things," Roger laughed. "Going to Whole Cake Island just to visit Linlin sounded boring—but if we get to fight Harald…"
"…then it's a life well lived!" Rayleigh finished, grinning.
That was the mindset of the truly strong.
Even knowing Harald's power, they felt no fear.
Only anticipation.
"Then let's go make a scene on Whole Cake Island!!!" Roger shouted, raising his hand.
Valthior, Bullet, and the rest of the crew responded in unison, fists raised, their voices echoing with battle-hungry excitement.
...
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